Was
by audenzia
Summary: A short glimpse of their non-existent love story. [One-shot]


Tenten didn't know how pretty the colour purple was until she met his eyes. It was a shade of purple, more of a lavender, and she kind of liked it.

The boy who owned those eyes had found her intriguing at first. She had this bravery inside of her to stand up for herself, but her courage wasn't wild. Explaining it was difficult, but if Neji would compare it to fire, she would be the blue kind - soft, smooth and gentle, but burn it still did.

They exchange nods often, seeing as they were in the same class in the Academy, and even as a kid, Tenten knew her boundaries and manners. Neji respected that. Not many kids could maintain themselves the way Tenten had.

As genins, they were grouped together in the most randomized team Tenten could have expected. One was a loud taijutsu ninja, one was the genius of her generation of ninjas, and one was her - an ordinary ninja, belonging to no specific clan, and simply trying her best to be a good one. Her efforts bore her fruits of great results; she was known as the weapons' expert, she heard her teacher say one day, proudly bragging about his team to a white haired jōnin after a mission.

Tenten smiled at that.

Neji heard it, too, and a little bubble of pride grew inside of him.

"Great work, today," he said when their eyes met. Tenten grinned, "Thanks, Neji."

She didn't know it was the first time Neji had complimented someone. Neji watched her go home for the day, somewhat content with her short answer and toothy grin.

They grew together, comfortably.

**It was nice.**

Neji had always done everything on his own: he learnt the clan's special technique by himself, he studied his days in the Academy on his own, he trained with the dummies alone. He'd never really sought for someone when he wanted to do something, (besides, his teacher would always do something muscle-killing and called it training, so he never really wanted to ask - and he didn't need to explain Lee) so Neji would just walk out of the Hyuuga complex and do whatever it was he wanted to do everyday, on his own.

One day, Tenten had been on the training grounds early, greeting Neji when he came by to train. Neji paused, seeing as somebody had killed his dummy.

"Morning, Neji," she exclaimed, a shuriken paused from a throw.

"Morning," he replied steadily, watching her as she took his usual training spot as he dropped his training gear nearby. "Training alone?"

Throwing her shuriken casually, she responded, "Not anymore." The weapon flew out of her fingers to the middle of her target.

"You can be my partner," she said, turning to him after the throw.

Neji arched a brow.

She chuckled, "It's easy to throw weapons at unmoving objects."

Basically asking him to be her living target, Tenten smiled. "The same goes to you, too, right, Mr. I-train-alone-secretly-everyday?"

Neji shrugged, walking closer to her. He observed as she took her stance and pulled out her scrolls. Taking his own stance, he retorted, "Its not a secret."

The morning trainings became a habitual schedule. From solo practice, soon they found themselves expecting the other to show up in the mornings of non-mission days, combat wear and training gear in a bag. Sometimes Tenten's mother would cook up a bento for after practice meals and she'd share. Later, Tenten cooked two portions for both of them everyday, instead.

Not wanting to lose to anything, including in returning favours, Neji started to bring Hinata's homemade tea in a thermos, not forgetting to bring two cups for each of them to drink in.

Eventually, they'd share their brunches together, without one having to ask the other.

**It was comfortable.**

Tenten didn't know when it started, but Neji would smile at her, instead of the polite nod whenever their eyes would meet. She would smile in return, and she'd see that peaceful expression he would wear. At first she wondered if something was bothering him, then she realized he was only smiling for her.

Blushing as she realized this, Tenten smiled to herself, her heart pounding as if it were to explode.

When she was hurt from a mission, he would be the first to tend to her, erasing every opportunity for Lee or Gai-sensei to be the one to patch up her wound. She had gotten used to his lithe fingers wrapping her bandages, and it became a routine.

Everytime she retrieved a wound, Lee and Gai-sensei didn't even bother to reach for the first aid kit. Instead, they called Neji, in which he would always have appeared next to her in a second - never late, his eyes staring at the wound as if it was the demon of all demons.

She would smile and attempt to return the favor. She'd be the one patching him up if the Hyuuga perfectionist would gain a scratch (which he rarely did), but she realized that she had always been the nurse of the team (if she wasn't hurt herself) even before then, so the task wasn't a new effort on her part.

Frowing, Tenten realized there should be more she could do to return Neji's care. So she asked him one day, if he had eaten dinner and brought him some, saying that her mum's made too much.

The Hyuuga household had always had the same dinner time, and there was always someone who made sure dinner would be good and on time, so there never was a time that Neji had no dinner to go home to.

He excused himself from dinner that night.

Tenten realized that the Hyuugas would have prepared him a dinner no matter what and slapped her head silly the next morning. She was too embarassed to bring it up on their morning practice, but her eyes lit up when he pulled a bag out of his own usual one and gave it to her, the sound of her mother's food containers letting out a small grumble as they moved freely in the bag.

"It was delicious," he said.

It made her day.

Slowly, they became closer.

They knew exactly what kind of feelings they were growing for the other, yet none of them made a move to back away.

So they moved forward.

They sat closer to the other during their brunches, and they walk with their hands right beside the other, sometimes grazing each other. None made the move to pull away.

**It was peaceful.**

And then there was that war.

Neji made sure this one woman would always stay under his sight as much ad he could. If he couldn't see her anywhere, a short search with the Byakugan would commence. It was a dark time for Konoha, and all other Hidden Villages as well, and anything could happen at anytime.

Not exactly a pessimist, but Neji just couldn't help but always think of the worst at a time like this.

His heart would beat faster whenever he couldn't spot her. He grew anxious so easily (which scared him so much), nervous and always careful for anything, any enemy, that could show up at any moment. It wasn't anxiety for himself, but for the girl in her equal buns.

He didn't want her in the front lines, he realized, as he watched her fight from the corner of his eyes. He grit his teeth as he looked at his enemy, the determination to quickly get rid of the annoyance to quickly grab her hand and bring her back to the village.

Oh, if Tenten could hear his thoughts, she would have yelled at him. _"I'm strong enough to fight for not only myself, but also my nation," _she would say.

His heart clenched everytime Tenten received a blow, and he just wanted the war to be over with. He concentrated his chakra to one last jutsu, knowing this would definitely bring the enemy down.

"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!"

That night, as they rested, he came into her camp, unnoticed as she was pulling her hair down. Neji eyed the scars on her body, a result of the never ending fight.

"Don't go tomorrow."

The words slipped off his tongue before he could realize it.

She froze, at first, when she realized someone had come close to her without her realization. War was on-going and she had to stay alert at all times. But when she heard his voice, _Neji's _voice, she relaxed herself. She was safe.

"Why not?"

Silence deemed the room as Neji refused to answer. He clenched his fists and grit his teeth, looking to the ground as he didn't want to meet her eyes. There were a ton of reasons he could give her - she could die, she could get hurt, he could lose her, she could be one of those bodies they were zipping up just earlier-

"Neji," she called. Neji never knew his name could hold so much emotion. Tenten walked over to him, closing their distance with every careful step she made.

"What would you feel if you hear me asking the same thing?"

He felt her fingers trailing his chin, gently moving it up to lock her eyes into his pale ones. He immediately felt the warmth of her hands enveloping him and he placed his own over hers. It was the first time he intentionally connected his hand to hers, and unlike the grazing of their hands that he was used to, this brought an entirely new feeling to him. Letting this warmth go would be his biggest mistake in life.

"Devastated," he finally answered, his voice uncharateristically cracking as he did so.

"Please don't ask me to stay behind," she whispered.

Neji still admired her blue flames. Her courage to ask and show her true self to him fearless, eye-to-eye. He realized he was the coward between the two of them, not wanting to meet her eyes just a few seconds ago.

"I can't live knowing I did nothing as you dive head first into battle."

Neji held her hands tighter, stepping closer to her, until he could rest his forehead on hers.

"I can't live without you," Neji confessed, his hands moving to cup her cheeks. He was being overly blatant with his emotions, something he never thought he would have been, but he didn't care. He might not have another chance.

"I'm not going anywhere," Tenten reassured him. "You have to promise me you won't too."

Instead of an answer, he closed in his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly and passionately; it was a longing kiss both of them needed. He poured every emotion he had to the kiss as she kissed him back, both of them equally desperate. He had never confessed his feelings to her, and neither had she. Both were expecting more time for a relationship, wishing for a slow and steady one.

But time was cruel and Neji regretted going slow. He should have confessed ages ago, spend multiple dates and buy her flowers on a daily basis.

That was his biggest regret.

"I love you," he whispered, tears uncontrolled as they rolled down his cheeks. Tenten wiped them away, despite her own wetting her skin.

"I love you, too."

Tenten was smiling as she shed her tears, her hair down and her hands resting on his chest. Neji wanted to stay still forever - he didn't want to move away.

**It was everything.**

Tenten realized he hadn't worded his promise. He had done it on purpose.

"Always the perfectionist, huh, Neji?"

She wiped her tears as she kneeled by the stone.

It was Naruto's order: a special memoriam, just for him.

She traced her fingers on the carving of his name, her white Lilies lain on his grave.

"You finally kissed me, but never asked me out," she chuckled a reliving his kiss. She would never forget the soft feeling of his lips on hers, she vowed herself so.

"At least you confessed," she said again. She wanted to smile. How he would hate himself if he saw her like this, broken and teary on the ground.

But she couldn't.

She sobbed.

Eventually she had to leave. Lee had found her, again, she could hear him coming from a distance.

It had been a full month, and she still couldn't get herself to stay away.

So she said one last thing before Lee could reach her. The same words she kept repeating the past month.

"I love you, Neji."

**He ****was her first and last.**

-_fin-_


End file.
